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Drawing power

11 November, 2004

astragal

Another Royal Academy event last week had to be held in the big Norman & Dawbarn Imperial College lecture hall, because demand for tickets was so great. Tadao Ando was the attraction, and he did not disappoint. His lively lecture about art and architecture included some good cross-banter with his translator and the story of his own expanding studio building, with accommodation for his dog Le Corbusier (once to be called Kenzo Tange 'but we realised we couldn't kick him around'). He concluded by showing a fabulous pair of waterside houses on 4 by 4 metre plots, one concrete and the other (demanded by a new client who had seen the first one) in timber.

At the post-lecture supper - like the lecture, supported by the Mori Foundation - Mrs Mori, who heads the Japanese Committee of honour for the RA, told guests that when Ando writes letters, he always accompanies them with little drawings. She now has a collection of these, which she is keeping in the hope that one day 'there might be an auction'.

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